Oh, patents! Smart diabetic socks

 Copyright Françoise Herrmann

If you are diabetic, you might consider subscribing to a delivery of seven pairs of smart and connected Siren Care socks, every 6 months! Your socks will come in an organizer box, together with a laundry bag and a Siren Alert Plug, for use in case you do not have a mobile phone.

The Siren Care diabetic socks won a Best Innovation Award at CES 2018, among thousands of competing and exhibited products. CES Innovation awards are granted based on a composite score provided by a panel of three independent judges (an engineer, an industrial designer and a member of the trade press) for each of 29 CES product categories, including, for example, robotics and drones, cybersecurity, smart cities, home appliances, 3D printing, fitness, sports and biotech or embedded technologies.The Best Innovations Awards are granted in each product category to the highest ranking product, as long as the product exceeds a certain threshold score. (CES 2018 Judges)

Bottom line, Siren Care socks have really made it to the top!

Siren Care socks are designed with Neurofabric™, a fabric woven with miniature body heat temperature sensors. This design, informed by clinical trial data, assumes that an increase in body heat, relative to a baseline, is a strong indicator of injury-induced inflammation (Lavery et al, 2004). This information is wirelessly uploaded to a mobile app, or to a wall plug app if you do not have a mobile device, where the early signs of injury (i.e.; diabetic ulceration) may be detected on the soles of diabetic feet. Mobile phone users are alerted immediately of any possible inflammation sites, when the measurements exceed a threshold temperature. For Siren Care Plug users, a dedicated Siren Care concierge service phones the user to alert them of a possible injury site.

Since such early symptoms as inflammation are often missed altogether, because diabetic nerve damage (called neuropathy), together with peripheral artery disease cause feet to feel numb in patients diagnosed with diabetes, these smart and connected socks perform a very important preventive care function.

The Siren Care diabetic socks are otherwise moisture wicking, seamless, machine washable and dryable. They also require no charging.

This invention is recited in the recently filed patent application US2017188841 titled System and method for detecting inflammation in a foot. The Abstract for this invention is included below, together with a patent drawing showing a flowchart of the temperature sensing socks. 

One variation of a method for detecting inflammation in a foot includes: accessing a first temperature measured through a left temperature sensor and a second temperature measured through a right temperature sensor at approximately a first time, the left temperature sensor arranged in a left sock and the right temperature sensor arranged in a right sock worn on the user's feet; calculating a baseline difference between the first and second temperatures based on confinnation of absence of inflammation in the user's left and right feet at the first time; accessing a third temperature measured through the left temperature sensor and a fourth temperature measured through the right temperature sensor at approximately a second time; and in response to a second temperature difference-between the third and fourth temperaturesdiffering from the baseline difference by more than a threshold difference, issuing an alarm through the user interface.

Siren Care socks are currently out of stock, but you can sign up on a wait list at the Siren Care website.

References

Siren Care

https://siren.care/

US2017188841 (A1) ― 2017-07-06 - System and method for detecting inflammation in a foot

CES Innovations Award program

https://www. esces.tech/Events-Programs/Innovation-Awards
Lavery, L. A., Higgins,K.R.,  Lanctot, D.R.,  Constantinides, G. P.,  Zamorano, R. G.,  Armstrong, D. G., Athanasiou, K. A.  & C. MAULI Agrawal (2004) Home Monitoring of Foot Skin Temperatures to Prevent Ulceration, in Diabetes Care, vol. 27, no. 11, November 2004.

https://siren.care/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Trial-Home-Monitoring-of-Foot-Skin-Temperatures-to-Prevent-Ulceration-2004-Lavery-Armstrong.pdf  

List of CES 2018 judges

https://www.ces.tech/Events-Programs/Innovation-Awards/Meet-the-Judges